Peter Berck, Ph.D., Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Overview

Air quality and energy saving policies can have pervasive effects on the California economy. The economic impacts of these policies are estimated using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the California economy. A CGE model simulated various economic relationships in a market economy where prices and productions adjust in response to economic shocks (e.g., policy changes) to equate quantities demanded for and supplied of goods, services and factors of production (labor and capital). The model will be used to evaluate potential energy saving (and pollution reducing) transportation policies.

Speaker Biography

Peter Berck is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley where he teaches environmental and resource economics. He also edits the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Professor Berck has published numerous books and articles on impact analysis in California, the theory of environmental regulation, and the economics of fisheries and forests. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachussets Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.